Prompt action needed to meet global climate trend
For the past seven months since President Yoon Suk-yeol took office, he has been running in only one direction ― anything but Moon (ABM).
Yoon's energy policy is no exception.
Last month, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced its 10th basic plan to generate energy.
The plan called for lowering the share of renewable energy from 30.2 percent to 21.6 percent while lifting that of nuclear power from 23.9 percent to 32.4 percent in South Korea's energy mix until 2030. This is a far cry from the trend seen in the rest of the world.
The Yoon government's struggle to escape from its predecessor's nuclear phaseout policy recently produced its first fruit. Last Wednesday, the Shin Hanul No. 1 nuclear power plant began operating to become Korea's 27th reactor, five years later than initially scheduled.
Yoon and his energy officials call former President Moon Jae-in's tenure the "five lost years" in nuclear power generation.
The incumbent leader described the nuclear phaseout policy as a "foolish thing," which caused a burden for South Korean businesses and destroyed the nation's competitive reactor export industry. Yoon cited France and China as examples, the two exceptions where nuclear power generation takes the lion's share of their energy mix.
However, things are going quite the opposite way in the U.S. and the rest of Europe.
In America, seven old reactors have been shut down ahead of schedule in the past seven years for economic and environmental reasons. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel's denuclearization policy hit a snag recently. Still, the European country has no plan to cancel it, only slowing its pace.
It is true that faced with cold weather and rising fuel costs, due to Russia's weaponization of gas as part of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, some European countries are reconsidering their nuclear phaseout plans. However, they do so only temporarily, not permanently, as the South Korean government does. However, the state auditor and public prosecutors made a fuss here for closing a worn-out reactor along its southern coast while failing to control its contaminated water.
Most advanced countries and not-so-industrialized ones have joined the "RE100 (Renewable Electricity 100)" campaign. It is an international private drive to meet 100 percent of corporate power consumption with renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, by 2050. It excludes nuclear power from renewable sources. If Korea maintains its ambitious nuclear program, the nation's pledge to reach carbon neutrality 28 years from now will become a lie. Yoon's pro-nuclear policy ― not his predecessor's atomic phaseout ― will hamper Korean firms due to sanctions.
Yes, with its small land size and not-so-sunny and windy weather, South Korea is not exactly an ideal country for renewable energy. Some experts also estimate up to 100 trillion won ($77 billion) worth of investments into the Energy Storage System (ESS) is needed to make up for the inconsistent nature of renewables.
However, these costs are inevitable in building a carbon-zero society. Facilities to store and eliminate nuclear waste will cost at least a similar amount. Which will be better for our descendants, who will either thank or curse their ancestors for leaving polluted and unsafe land or a clean and safe one?
All this shows why even the Presidential Commission for Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth recently put the brakes on the Yoon administration's policy. The blue-ribbon panel recommended last week that the government expand renewable energy instead of reducing it after "failing to present any scientific grounds."
Finally, there are also always security threats from nuclear energy. Consider this: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un does not even need nuclear missiles to threaten South Korea. Just observe what Putin is doing in Ukraine to the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia.
Who can say Kim will be much different from his Russian counterpart if the final desperate hours come?
Renewables are the answer as the energy source to heat and illuminate our spaces safely and freely.
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